Webcam not displayed in a Google Chrome Extension with Pepper Flash

Question

Hello Adobe,there is a problem with the Pepper Flash version in Chrome regarding access to webcam.  When embedding a Flash application that accesses the webcam inside a Chrome Extension and clicking "Allow" (to give access to the webcam), the expected behavior is to see the image from the webcam.  Instead, we only see a black screen -- no image -- and no actual errors that the camera is unaccessible.If we disable Pepper Flash and use the regular Flash plug-in in Chrome, then the Extension works perfectly (we see the image from the webcam).Note that if we try to load the exact same HTML code directly as a web page with Pepper Flash, it also works.  So this brings to the conclusion that there is a problem with the following combination: Pepper Flash + Chrome Extension + webcam.This is a major set back for defining useful extensions in Chrome that use the webcam.  Please comment on this issue.Thank you.

jeromiec83223024 · Accepted Answer

Our users are still experiencing this issue with the 11.8.800.97 Pepper release that's currently installed with the most recent version of Chrome. When loading our webpage in Chrome w/ the Pepper Flash Player enabled we get nothing from the webcam but when we disable it and use the standard Adobe install everything works as expected.

Was this issue supposed to be resolved in the 11.8.800.94 release that the 11.8.800.97 Pepper release is based off of?

Nope. My original recommendation to open a Chromium bug stands. I was hopeful that another webcam fix in Chrome would resolve this, but it looks like it's specific to the use-case of being in a Chromium extension. My assumption is that the nature of the process sandboxing in the PPAPI model prevents us from accessing the camera in this case.

This is not a use-case that we test or support, so there's no guarantee in terms of long-term stability or prioritization of fixes should it break in the future. Just want to be clear that this is shaky ground if you're building a business model on top of it. That said, we do like to see novel uses for Flash and try to help where possible. The rate and pace at which browsers are changing makes it difficult to predict what will and won't work long-term in these kinds of edge-cases.

In the PPAPI world, there's not much wiggle room for "making stuff work". The beauty of the PPAPI is that it provides clean choke points by which Google can restrict plug-in behavior. This greatly enhances end-user security, but is inherently more restrictive in terms of our ability to generate clever hacks. (IMO, this is a good thing in the long run.)

Engineers at Google would really need to take a look to understand what behavior is not currently permissible, and how/if they're interested in providing a method for making it work securely.

jeromiec83223024 · Answer

This is most likely a security restriction in Chrome. While you're welcome to file a Flash Player bug at http://bugbase.adobe.com, I think you'd be better served by opening a bug on Chromium as they control the entire stack.

In either case, include complete repro steps and a simplified example that demonstrates the issue to make it easy for someone to debug. This will get you the quickest turnaround.

Thanks,

Jeromie Clark

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